Arbitrary Targeting of Athletics by the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO)

Spring
2012
Resolution Number
13.02
 
Contact
Assigned to
President
Category
General Concerns
Status
Completed
Status Report

Senate representatives will continue to advocate for principles noted in this resolution.

Whereas, The Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) has recently recommended1 defunding California community college athletic programs by prohibiting colleges from collecting apportionment for intercollegiate athletics program courses in a desire to “protect the CCC system’s highest-priority missions”;

Whereas, The LAO’s self-stated function is to serve as “California’s nonpartisan fiscal and policy advisor,” but the specific identification of athletics’ apportionment oversteps this function and is an isolated targeted recommendation that is not put into the context of an extensive analysis of fiscal responsibility, productivity, and other measures of student success in athletics;

Whereas, The student athlete cohort consistently attains higher GPAs than the rest of the community college student body (female athletes 2.7 vs. 2.46 and male athletes 2.54 to 2.3) and transfers at a higher rate than the rest of the student body (female athletes 16% vs. 6% and male athletes 9% vs. 6%); and

Whereas, Athletes are required to have an education plan in place during their first term, earlier than what is proposed by the Student Success Task Force for all students, and must be enrolled in and successfully complete 12 academic units each term with a GPA of 2.0, thereby ensuring responsible use of state funds;

Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges oppose the recent LAO recommendation1 which goes beyond its long established scope of examining the costs of legislative proposals and projecting state revenue.

MSC Disposition: LAO, Local Senates

1LAO document “Eliminate state funding for CCC intercollegiate athletics, for savings of about $55 million in 2012-13” February 10, 2012